Kesteven and Grantham Girls School Sixth Form Entry 2027

Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School (KGGS) is a selective state grammar school in Grantham, Lincolnshire, that admits external candidates into Year 12 alongside its own Year 11 leavers. For September 2027 entry, the school's own Admissions Policy sets 30 places aside for external applicants, up from 20 for September 2026, within a sixth form it states will run to roughly 320 students in total.

Who Can Apply for September 2027 Entry, and How Many Places Are There

KGGS admits external Year 12 applicants every year, and the number of places set aside for them has changed for the coming cycle. Under Admissions Policy V11.0 (dated September 2024, governing September 2026 entry), the school states: "The size of the sixth form is typically in the order of 330. The school's Published Admission Number (PAN) for external applications is 20." Under Admissions Policy V12.0 (dated September 2025, governing September 2027 entry), the equivalent line reads: "The size of the sixth form is typically in the order of 320. The school's Published Admission Number (PAN) for external applications is 30."

Read together, KGGS is opening up more external places -- 30 rather than 20 -- inside a sixth form that its own policy expects to be slightly smaller overall, 320 rather than 330. Both figures come directly from the school's own PDFs, not from a third-party summary: Lincolnshire County Council's directory record for KGGS reproduces the external-applicant wording from the 2027-2028 policy almost verbatim, but its own summary line above that section still carries the older "330" figure, so a reader checking the council's page alone would see both numbers on the same page with no explanation of which year each belongs to. This page states each figure against its policy version and year so that ambiguity does not arise.

Internal Year 11 students at KGGS do not compete for these external places at all: the policy confirms they "have the right to transfer to our Y12 provided they meet the academic standards set out above." External applicants should apply, in the school's own words, "before February half term each year for the following September" -- meaning an application for September 2027 entry should reach the school before the February 2027 half term, not at the point a family reads this page in the second half of August 2026. Families still exploring whether KGGS is the right fit at 11+ rather than 16+ may prefer our separate KGGS 11+ admissions guide, which covers Year 7 entry only and is not repeated here.

The GCSE Bar for External Applicants, and What Changed for 2027

The academic bar for Year 12 entry has been rewritten between the two policies, not just renumbered. The 2026-2027 policy (V11.0) sets three separate conditions: "Passes at grade 4 or above in English Language (not English Literature) and Mathematics," "At least 6 GCSE passes at Grades 5 to 9," and "A Grade 6 or above in the subjects the student wishes to study at Advanced level or in any prerequisite subjects."

The 2027-2028 policy (V12.0) folds the first two conditions into one, and raises the English and Maths threshold in the process: "At least 6 grade 5 passes at GCSE including English language and Mathematics." Where the 2026 policy allowed a grade 4 in English and Maths provided six other subjects reached grade 5, the 2027 policy requires English and Maths themselves to be at grade 5. The subject-specific grade-6 rule for intended A-level courses is also gone; in its place, an applicant must "be accepted onto a viable program of four A-level subjects having met the subject criteria as shown in the A-level courses booklet," and the school "reserve[s] the right to review the program of any applicant who is looking to study more than two new subjects."

In practice, an external Year 11 student aiming for September 2027 needs six GCSEs at grade 5 or above, with English Language and Mathematics counted among them, and a workable four-subject A-level combination that KGGS can actually timetable -- rather than a single named subject clearing grade 6 in isolation. Families preparing for this shift often start with subject-specific GCSE Maths tuition in Year 10 and 11, since Mathematics now sits inside the same grade-5 floor as every other required pass rather than a separate, lower grade-4 line. Y11 students already at KGGS transfer under the same rules; the school's own courses booklet, updated for each entry year, carries any further subject-specific requirements beyond this general floor.

How Places Are Ranked if KGGS Is Oversubscribed -- and the Criterion That Was Removed

Meeting the GCSE floor secures a place only if KGGS is not oversubscribed for external Year 12 entry. Both policies rank qualifying external applicants first by "overall GCSE performance based on the student's 8 best GCSE grades calculated using the Ofqual points system," then apply a tie-break order if that alone does not separate every applicant.

The 2026-2027 policy's order runs: (A) meeting the standards; (B) looked-after and previously looked-after children; (C) "Students who are eligible for the Pupil Premium... who achieve the qualifying criteria and whose home address is within 12 miles of the school"; (D) children of staff; (E) distance from home to school. The 2027-2028 policy's order runs: (A) meeting the standards; (B) looked-after and previously looked-after children; (C) children of staff; (D) distance from home to school.

Comparing the two lists directly, the criterion that gave Pupil Premium-eligible applicants living within 12 miles of the school a distinct priority -- ahead of distance alone -- appears in the 2026-2027 policy and does not appear in the 2027-2028 policy. Both documents are published by the school itself, dated and versioned, and this page states the change exactly as the two texts show it: more external places overall, 20 rising to 30, alongside one fewer named priority route for disadvantaged local applicants specifically. Both policies keep the same final tie-break for a genuinely equal last place: "a lottery will be drawn by an independent person, not employed by the school or working in Children's Service Directorate at the local authority."

Is KGGS's Sixth Form Still Girls-Only at 16?

This is a genuine open question, and it is worth being precise about why. The Department for Education's Get Information about Schools register lists KGGS's "Gender of entry" as "Girls," and Lincolnshire County Council's directory record repeats "Gender: Girls." Both of these fields describe the school's Year 7 admission round -- the point at which pupils sit Lincolnshire's co-ordinated grammar schools' 11+ assessment -- and neither GIAS nor the council's directory has a separate field for describing the gender basis of a 16+ external intake.

What KGGS's own Sixth Form entry policy actually says, in both the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 versions, is entirely gender-neutral: it refers throughout to "all students" and "an applicant," and at no point states that external Year 12 candidates must be female, or that male candidates are excluded. The Good Schools Guide's independent review describes the sixth form informally as attended by "the girls" -- but that is the reviewer's observation of who currently attends, not a quotation of an admissions rule.

For contrast, it is useful to see what an explicit statement looks like. The King's School Grantham, a separate boys' school in the same town, states plainly on its own site that it has "a large and successful Sixth Form of about 300 boys" and "warmly welcome[s] applicants for Sixth Form places from boys who will achieve good GCSEs." KGGS's own documents contain no equivalent sentence in either direction.

Given that gap, the honest position is that KGGS's published policy does not resolve the question, and this page does not resolve it on the school's behalf. Anyone considering applying -- including a family with a son who might otherwise consider it -- should put the question to KGGS directly, in writing, before assuming an answer either way: "Does Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School's external Year 12 admission apply to male applicants, and if so, on what basis?" Contacting the school's Sixth Form Pastoral Office directly is the appropriate route, since neither GIAS nor the council directory can settle it.

Grantham's Two Grammar Sixth Forms Compared

Grantham has two grammar schools, and it is easy to conflate them with a third, differently-located school that shares part of KGGS's own name. The King's School Grantham is a boys' school; its own site states it has "a large and successful Sixth Form of about 300 boys, including approximately 10% who are new to King's in Year 12" -- meaning roughly 30 external places each September, a figure that, by coincidence, lands close to KGGS's own 2027-2028 external PAN of 30. Neither school shares sixth-form teaching or a joint timetable with the other; each runs its own separate, single-institution Year 12 admissions process, and no source from either school describes shared provision.

The school genuinely easy to confuse with KGGS by name is Kesteven and Sleaford High School, a separate girls' grammar in the town of Sleaford, roughly 11 miles from Grantham. It carries its own Published Admission Number, its own admissions policy and its own sixth form, entirely independent of KGGS; the two schools happen to share the "Kesteven" name because both sit within the historic Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, not because they are linked institutions.

Lincolnshire runs a fully selective state system across the county, coordinated through the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools for Year 7 entry, and KGGS's own admissions policy confirms it "continue[s] to maintain our association with the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools and adhere[s] to their testing and selection arrangements" at 11+. For 16+ entry, however, each grammar school -- KGGS, King's, Kesteven and Sleaford, and the rest of the county's grammars -- sets and publishes its own separate sixth-form admission arrangements; see our wider guide to Lincolnshire's grammar schools for how the county's 11+ system fits together. There is no single county-wide 16+ process to apply through.

The Academic and Ofsted Record Behind the Place

External applicants weighing up KGGS's sixth form can check its record against named comparators rather than a generic description. Ofsted's most recent inspection, on 19 September 2023, judged the school Outstanding overall, and -- reported as its own line on Ofsted's report for URN 138638 -- "Sixth form provision: Outstanding" alongside Outstanding ratings for quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

On results, The Good Schools Guide's independent review states KGGS's 2025 A-level average points score at 40.22, against a Lincolnshire average of 34.55 and an England average of 35.08 -- comparators the school's own site does not publish.

The same review records that in 2025, "54 per cent [achieved] 9-7 at GCSE; 38 per cent A*/A at A level (68 per cent A*-B)." KGGS's own site reports a stronger year for 2026: 43% of all A-level grades at A* or A, with five students securing places at Cambridge University and two at Oxford University. Set against an earlier year, the school's own November 2025 Open Evening announcement quoted 79% of A-level grades at A*-B in 2022, against 68% in both 2024 and 2025 -- a shift this page states as published, without attributing a cause the school itself has not given. Families weighing up A-level choices for a KGGS place may also find our A-Level subject guides useful once an offer is in hand.

The Lincolnshire County Council directory separately records a current 16-18 headcount of 311, close to but not identical with The Good Schools Guide's 314 -- an ordinary gap between a live headcount and an annual third-party listing.

What Changes at 16: Harrowby House, No Uniform, Four A-Levels

Moving into KGGS's sixth form changes more than the timetable. The Good Schools Guide's review describes the sixth form as "housed in Harrowby House, a separate block on-site," where "the girls are independent from the main school, not wearing uniform but all with a lanyard for identification." The same review notes that "all do four A levels for the first term and some continue with them until the end" -- meaning a fourth subject is standard at the start of Year 12, with some students dropping to three later on, consistent with the 2027-2028 policy's own reference to a "viable program of four A-level subjects."

For a prospective external applicant, the practical way to see this before applying is the school's own Sixth Form Open Evening. The most recently advertised date, on the school's Latest News page, was Thursday 13 November 2025, running 5.30pm to 7.30pm with no booking required and a Headteacher's address at 5.30pm and again at 6.15pm. KGGS holds this event annually each November for the following September's applicants, so a family targeting September 2027 entry should expect an equivalent evening in November 2026. Our own 16+ school guides cover the equivalent open-evening pattern at other Lincolnshire grammars.

Financial Support: The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund

KGGS is a non-fee-paying state school, and nothing in this section describes a cost to attend. What KGGS operates is the government's 16 to 19 Bursary Fund, which the school administers directly for its own sixth form students who face specific financial barriers to staying in education.

Two categories exist. The first, Bursaries for Vulnerable Groups, is defined by the Department for Education and covers students in care, care leavers, and students receiving Income Support, Universal Credit in their own right, Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payments, or Employment and Support Allowance. The second, KGGS's own Discretionary Bursary, is assessed case by case; the school's published criteria set the main income threshold at "a total gross income of less than £30,000 per year" for the combined household, with a second category for students facing exceptional circumstances such as caring responsibilities, where the £30,000 figure may be increased.

Funds are paid toward specific, named needs -- travel passes, essential books, specialist clothing or equipment, and costs tied to educational visits or university open days -- rather than as a general allowance, and the school states directly that funds cannot cover private tutoring, non-essential extracurricular activities, or general household bills. Families should request an application form from the school's Sixth Form Pastoral Office by email; KGGS gives new applications a deadline of "the end of the second week in October."

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